Nationwide Building Society will now be offering a cashback incentive for buyers purchasing a home with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of A or a high B. Research by Online Estate Agents Emoov shows that 33,824 homes in England and Wales qualify for a grade A rating, with 2,177,807 homes currently on a B ratings – qualifying for the cashback incentive with a few changes.

The Green Reward incentive comes as the government has set a target to get all social homes in the UK to a grade C or higher by 2030, in a combat to tackle climate change concerns to our housing. The Environment Agency has warned that rising sea levels and increased rainfall are already threatening coastal cities in the UK, while the UN has said that extremes of coastal flooding are to become far more frequent.

“Climate change largely affects home insurance and mortgage lending. With the increased likelihood of flooding or high winds, insurance companies have to increase their premiums on properties within high risk flood areas. In turn, these higher premiums will decrease the likelihood of getting a mortgage on these properties,” said Naveen Jaspal, COO of Emoov.

“Properties that are likely to become damaged will cause major uncertainty for mortgage lenders. The knock on effect will be much higher deposits and lower loan-to-value ratios in these areas, this is a problem, as due to climate change, we are seeing these high risk areas expanding.”

Research by Emoov has revealed that cities such as Belfast, Bristol and Cardiff are already at risk, with Brighton being revealed as the city most at risk of climate change. The research used a mixture of National Trust, BBC and Climate Central data to compare factors such as rising sea levels, rainy days and storm damage.